Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were once a widely used industrial chemical employed as an insulation fluid in electrical capacitors, electrical transformers, vacuum pumps, gas-transmission turbines and a variety of other devices and products. Their high stability contributed to both their commercial usefulness and, as recognized more recently, in their long-term deleterious environmental and health effects. Due to their wide industrial use, contamination of surfaces with PCBs is confronted in a variety of settings. For example, industries which employ compressed air piping and vessel networks often confront PCB contamination due to the presence of PCBs in oil which has leaked into, and transported through, the air piping or vessel network.
PCBs are presently listed as carcinogens by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Due to governmental regulation of PCBs, there is a need for effective removal of PCBs from contaminated surfaces. A technique used previously to remove PCBs from contaminated surfaces involves washing the surface with kerosene. Such treatment, however, has met with only limited success due to its minimal PCB extraction efficiency. Moreover, following treatment with kerosene, a subsequent water rinse of the surface is ineffective due to the lack of solubility of kerosene in water, thus resulting in residual kerosene remaining upon the treated surface.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for methods and compositions for removing PCBs from contaminated surfaces. The present invention provides such methods and compositions, and further provides other related advantages.